CSX invests in environment at new Downtown space

CSX Corp. has had an indelible presence in Downtown Jacksonville since 1960 when the Atlantic Coast Line (one of its predecessors) moved here from Wilmington, N.C. The railroad’s current headquarters still occupies the same riverfront property at 500 Water St.

Now, the CSX presence Downtown is growing to include newly renovated digs in the adjacent 550 Building, where it has a 15-year lease for 11 of the building’s 14 floors, totaling 172,000 square feet of office space.

The company’s move supports its stated commitment to Downtown as well as its commitment to environment sustainability.

“We are committed to the Downtown area and very much support the political efforts [of Mayor Brown] to revitalize the area,” said Gary Sease, CSX spokesman. “Like many corporations, we have an intense focus on the environment and on our footprint. We look at every opportunity to be good environmental stewards. [One way] is our energy consumption in our facilities. We operate in 23 states, so we have a lot of facilities. In Jacksonville, we have tried to make both the 500 and 550 buildings just as energy efficient as possible.”

The 550 Water St. project is on track to obtain Gold certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Commercial Interiors from the U.S. Green Building Council, while the 500 Water St. Building is going for LEED Gold certification for existing buildings. Part of that is the new exterior signage on the CSX headquarters, which reduced energy consumption by 85 percent over the old sign.

“I see us eventually rolling this out at all our locations,” said Peter Trolle, director of corporate services at CSX. “We have this building [550], the main headquarters, the [Railroad Education and Development Institute] training center in Atlanta and another facility in Florence, South Carolina.”

The Jacksonville office of Gresham, Smith and Partners, a design and consulting firm, provided design services for the 550 Building renovations. The 550 project was primarily funded via the building owner’s tenant improvements, including $8.1 million for the buildout and $2.3 million for telephone, Internet and related connectivity costs. CSX spent $2 million for the office furniture.

“We went into the 550 project knowing innovation and sustainability is such an important part of CSX’s culture,” said Leith Oatman, a principal at GS&P. “We develop what we call a concept statement that we always go back to as we design a project. For the 550 campus, it is ‘create a fluid and progressive environment that supports CSX’s values of innovation and sustainability.’ So as designers, we use that as guidance for how we make decisions about [each element of] the design.”

There are now 1,750 CSX employees Downtown, split nearly equally between the two buildings. The employees in the 550 building, from both CSX Intermodal and CSX Technology, began moving into the new spaces in April.

“It was an impossible schedule [to move into the 550 Building] as the lease at [the former offices in] the ATT building expired,” Trolle said. “Everyone said, ‘No way.’ But we had the right team in place — the designers, Gresham, Smith & Partners; the general contractor, Brasfield & Gorrie; and the owner representative, Jones, Lang, LaSalle Inc., to make the impossible happen on schedule.”

The two buildings are just a short walk from each other, creating a campus-like environment, which “We think is very helpful from a teamwork and coordination and efficiency perspective,” Sease said.

Sease also stressed the importance of minimizing the company’s environmental impact, which also helps make the organization more lean.

“You want to be a good environmental steward because it’s the right thing to do, but in business, it also makes a difference on the bottom line in terms of energy expenditures, which is big for the company,” he said. “Reducing energy costs is very helpful.”

Energy-efficient designs also boost employee productivity. “There is definitive data that supports that if a large population of your employees have access to daylight, being able to see if the sun is out or if it’s raining, it’s more of a human comfort for them and they are better employees, with higher retention rates, sick time is reduced and they are more productive,” Oatman said.

The 550 Building redesign provides plenty of access to daylight and stunning views through large glass windows while interior offices for managers feature large glass walls.

“It’s a huge improvement,” said David Prohofsky, counsel at CSX Transportation. “It’s a very comfortable space, open, airy with natural light. It’s definitely an improvement.”

Using sunlight during work hours also saves energy. “We have optimized energy consumption with lighting,” said Stephanie Irwin, interior designer and GS&P’s LEED administrator on the project. “There are daylight sensors throughout the open spaces so when there is enough daylight for the space, the [electric] light is cut out so it reduces the amount of energy that the building uses.”

Green features

There are many USGBC criteria that make the 550 Building project green. For example, monitors and sensors that control what comes in through the HVAC system so that the air quality is better, while the air temperature is set to optimize the employees’ comfort. Water use is minimized by 20 percent thanks to things such as waterless urinals.

“As far as construction goes, we earned a credit for construction waste management,” Irwin said. “The contractor and the subs separated all the demolished materials for recycling.”

In fact, more than 60 percent of that material was diverted from landfills and recycled. Additionally, GS&P chose materials for use in the building that contained recycled material.

“We used regional manufacturers [that] harvest, extract and manufacture products within 500 miles [of the project],” Irwin said. “Some of the materials include gypsum board, steel and metal studs, which have a higher recycled content, ceiling tiles and carpet tiles.”

GS&P also designed the new offices to better support CSX’s employees by creating an environment that promotes creativity, efficiency and a sense of community.

“We designed the office environment moving away from “me” to “we” spaces, which means fewer closed rooms and more open spaces,” Oatman said. “We reduced the height of the panels that had been used in their former location to give employees more access to the daylight and it also encourages a greater flow of collaboration.”

Each floor also has small enclaves that employees can use for private discussions or personal phone calls. Each floor also has a “Cyber Café.”

“We included collaborative spaces where all the employees on that floor have access to a very open, fun, energetic space,” Oatman said. “This is where folks can go and get away from their own workstations for a while and work on a laptop and grab a cup of coffee and there’s a small kitchenette.”